The line madder, p.14
The Line Madder, page 14
“You failed to succeed in your efforts, Madder.” He sips his coffee. “Ashen’s advanced medical technologies were able to sustain me until I was able to recover.”
“That’s a shame.”
“You misinterpreted my actions. I was not planning to disturb David and Iris Madder. It was my intention to visit them. I had heard so much about them and wished to make sure that they were being taken proper care of. I was only able to go while on one of my shifts in the city, so I was in uniform.”
“I do not hope my actions disrupted your life too much,” I state.
“They did not. In fact, my bosses consider me more of an asset, knowing that I survived something that should have killed me.”
Ser speaks up. “Thank you for holding our house for us.”
“No problem, Ser.”
I narrow my eyes. “You called her Ser. You two know each other?” I examine the man. He is a little older than I am. His short dark brown hair contrasts the light scar on his face. A pair of glasses rests on his face, and he lowers them at my comment.
“You forget me already, Seth?” He smiles in amusement at the situation.
“I don’t see what’s so funny about this,” I groan.
“I sure hope you remember after you see this.” Voice cloaks him as a black energy and the man shifts into the familiar form of the shrew.
“Damn it, Lukas,” I sigh.
He turns back. “I really didn’t mean any harm back then,” he confesses. “How have you been? I’m afraid my colleagues took much offense over what you did to me. Dr. Ishahilde is still quite displeased that the scar won’t go away. Pretty deep for something done by carving me up with one of those old piercings of all things.”
“I knew I’d need a small, sharp object someday,” I mention. I don’t mention that in my attempts to leave, I left the second of the original two objects near my gun. Hopefully Ashen’s officers did not find them. Then again, they wouldn’t be able to link it back to me without the help of someone that knew me back when I wore those things. Of course, they do have Lukas Burrin on their side.
“But anyway, I’m guessing that they messed you up pretty badly. How has that fared for you?”
“Somewhat poorly.” I tilt my head down and shrug.
“How is Morgan? Are you two still together?” Ser wonders.
It’s Lukas’ turn to look down. “No, we are not.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” she tells him. “Did things go poorly between you two?”
“No, she was killed when Ashen and Hopea were in conflict. I was stationed there and she was living with me. The locals attacked us in protest of Hopea’s integration with Ashen.”
Ser’s expression remains mostly unchanged though something shows in her dark eyes. “And to think that I thought that you were all finally safe.”
Lukas frowns. “When is that ever the case?” He finishes his coffee and stands up. “Well, I’ll get out of your house now. Good luck with life.” He starts to leave the room.
I’m quite prepared to let him go, and not ready to learn more of how much of my old companion has changed, but Oriel raises a question that keeps Lukas Burrin in my home. “Do you know anything about metal statues that might have been taken by your colleagues?”
“I do, actually. They have been donated and sold to many places throughout the worlds,” he reveals. Then he checks the silver watch on his arm for the time. “I must go now. My next meeting is in an hour, and showing up late would cost me my livelihood.” He exits the home. Damn, this guy has some pride in his job. Has he really become that type of person? Maybe he’s always been like this, I don’t know. Either way, it’s sort of disgusting for him to value a job that involves disturbing people’s lives so much.
“We could use his help again,” Ser suggests.
“He’s working with the people that force other people out of their homes and take over worlds,” I remind her.
“He’s working for them. If Ashen’s authorities did in fact take the statues and spread them across worlds, he’ll be able to tell us where some might be. He isn’t a random stranger, Seth. He’s our friend.”
“You can’t trust someone to be a friend now because they were one in the past,” Oriel mutters. “But he could be useful.”
Oriel goes upstairs to her room while Ser remains in the living room. Oriel does have a point, and this would be a perfect time for a discussion with my daughter, so I climb the stairs and knock on her closed door. She opens it a moment later. Her grey eyes are questioning. In her hand she holds a pack of matches and in her mouth rests a single one of the objects. “I’ve been practicing with these,” she explains.
“Be cautious when fighting others,” I warn. “You have to make sure that you can’t be traced afterwards. The officers from Ashen do not give mercy when convicting people from Rubia of crimes.”
“That’s why I use these.” She lights the match and takes it away from her mouth. “Most people wouldn’t suspect to see used as the primary weapon in a fight.” She blows the flame out and flicks the match into the garbage bucket behind her.
“Very good.”
“So what were you here for? I know you’ve been gone a while, but even before, I wasn’t used to you coming to me and knocking on my door like this.” She smiles. “Hey, I’m not complaining or anything.”
“I know that your mother would want us to leave Lukas alone while he has his meeting so he doesn’t lose his awful job, but I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t mind joining me on a trip to his work to figure out what his true intentions are.”
“Hell, no. I don’t mind. In fact, I’m glad you asked.” She slides the pack of matches into her pocket and pulls on a short black and white leather jacket. It’s obvious that we’ll be getting confused glances from people in Rubia before we reach the portal, but Ashen is much colder and we’ll need the coats.
We leave the house when we’re sure that Ser isn’t watching us. If only she was as prepared for an adventure as she used to be, but I’m afraid that years passing and faith in her friends have taken a toll on her. I’m going to need her help eventually, I’m sure, and I just have to hope that she won’t be reluctant to assist me. It’s a good thing I’ve got Oriel to join me in this. Looking at Oriel, I see much more of Ser in her than I see of me, but I see myself more in her personality.
It takes only a short while for us to arrive in Ashen, using the portal system that hasn’t improved at all during the almost ninety years that the world had existed for. Oriel shows no reaction to being back in the grey city, but I know for sure that every second I spend here feels worse and worse.
There’s nothing left in this world for me. Not anymore.
Chapter 16
The city has changed incredibly since I was last here for an extended period of time. All of the buildings are enormous, except for the ones in the small and unpleasant part of the city that my family had been living in. Most of the former businesses are gone, either eaten up by larger companies or abandoned by the employees when the owners no longer had ownership of them for whatever reason. The only thing that I can see that remained the same is the old clock tower, though the clock no longer functions and is constantly displaying the time of eleven o’clock.
Oriel notices that I’m no longer familiar with the area. “Ashen’s technology building is this way.” She takes a couple of steps to the left.
“Thank you.” I follow her through the streets and to the doors of the place where Lukas works. When we arrive, we stop. Something is wrong. There are no guards.
“Cameras. Look up there. They always have someone watching.” Oriel glances up at a black lens above the door.
“I can take care of that.” I pull out my gun.
“You have no bullets, and they’ll see it. Let me take care of this.”
“How did you know I have this?” I ask.
“Do you really think I was interested in that stuff that Mother was buying?” She grins. Next she lights a match and pulls a travel can of air freshener out of her coat. “We’re not in the line of sight of the camera, and they can’t hear us. I’ve tested this with my friends before.” She catches my suspicious gaze. “We’ve only been pulling harmless pranks. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve been inside of this building.”
“Then why do you need the air freshener?”
“They will watch us walk up to the door. The footage they see is two and a half minutes behind. They haven’t figured that out yet. Frying the camera with this stuff knocks footage on both ends out for four minutes.” She starts spraying air freshener at the camera, then throws a lit match into the mist. She pushes her short hair back to keep it out of the path of her makeshift flamethrower and proceeds to damage the small lens.
When she’s finally sure that it’s safe to go in, she opens the door. “No locks here. They’re too confident in their security.” We creep inside. “We have to find a way to disguise ourselves so we look like we belong here. My friend Sadie has an ability that makes us invisible to them, but she’s not here now.”
“We don’t need a disguise. We just need to avoid people. That shouldn’t be too hard.”
Oriel and I stride down the halls and wait in the elevators until we reach the twenty-fourth floor. “I’m certain he works in either the room on the left or the next one past the stairs,” I conclude.
“Why would you say that? Are you finally developing an ability for the first time in forty-eight years?”
“No. I used my Blood to track his scent.”
My daughter peers through the tiny glass window on the door of the room to my left. “He’s in here.”
“Is anyone else with him?”
“Only a blonde woman with an angrily sharp nose.”
I look through the window. Lukas is turned with his back to us, and he is facing the woman, whose metal name tag reads Dr. Hilda Ishahilde. “Well, her parents sure found an appreciation for repetition,” I mutter. I had been under the assumption that Dr. Ishahilde was the doctor that had been taking care of Lukas, but she doesn’t carry herself the way that a medical doctor would. Dr. Ishahilde carries herself the way a ruler would. And to be honest, she does look like somewhat of a clinical queen.
“I hate her,” Oriel snarls. “I can already tell what type of person she is.”
“She doesn’t try to hide it, does she?” An unpleasant grin spreads across my face, displayed to me in the reflection on the window. “She’s disgusting.”
I focus again on the people inside the room. Lukas is presenting something to the woman, and she is judging him with cold eyes. I can’t hear exactly what they’re saying, but I can hear the tones of their voices. Lukas is both afraid and proud, and Ishahilde is more business-like.
Suddenly, she exclaims, “Wonderful!” and starts to lead Lukas out of the room. I motion to Oriel that we must move. I use my Blood to fully turn into the sha and dash down the hall to the elevator. Oriel follows me as a lioness. And though I should be entirely focused on not being caught here, I’m distracted. By what? Well, I’m seeing my own child use her Blood, and it’s impressive as hell. And though it’s obviously not the first time that she’s used her Blood, it’s the first time that I have the chance to see it. A sudden sadness passes over me as I realise that for one reason or another, I’ve missed a lot of Oriel’s firsts. Her first steps, her first birthday, and the first use of her Blood. I shake away the thought and focus on Lukas and Ishahilde’s actions.
The woman speaks to her underling as they stride down the hall. “As you will see, Burrin, we do not need your innovations any longer for this one project, so you will be transferred to a different department within the week. We will, rather than your technologies, use the items recently uncovered to awaken him, and we will use him to prevent any war that may arise.” That would be a great thought if they weren’t the one starting the wars in the first place. “By using him to unite the other worlds with Ashen, we will avoid any unnecessary fighting that our people would have had to suffer.”
“Am I allowed to wonder what these items may be?” Lukas inquires.
“You may wonder, and I may tell you. I would not be telling this to many, but you have been here longer than I have, and if you were to accept any of the positions that have been offered to you, you would be my superior.”
“I am quite satisfied with developing technologies to benefit my world,” Lukas says. I suppress an irritated sigh. He’s not from Ashen, yet he calls it his world. Then again, the strong accent that Ishahilde shares with him would lead one to believe that they’re both from the same world, and they both rejected it in favour of Ashen.
Ishahilde lowers her voice. “I will tell you what the items are. I’m sure you know that Madder Archaeology recently discovered a number of statues.”
Lukas’ face becomes even more pale than usual. “Of course.”
“These statues have an energy in each of them that can be used to revive him.” She speaks of him as if he is a deity or a fallen friend. “When he is awake, we will make sure that his fated enemies are against our cause, and use that fact to bring him to our side.” The lady turns and enters the second room. “This meeting is over.” She closes the door.
Lukas notices us when he reaches our end of the hall. We have allowed our Blood to fade, and we’re casually standing with our backs to the wall. Oriel plays with an unused match while I run my hand forwards through my hair, which has remained mostly unchanged since I was about fifteen years old. The reasoning of course, is that it was the same way that I looked when my parents last saw me, and I’ve refused to change it since so I don’t become unrecognisable. The only difference now is that it looks a little shorter since my face has matured. When Lukas notices us, he frowns.
“You need to get out of here. You are intruding.”
“I never saw any sign that said that this isn’t a public building,” I tell him.
“Leave.”
“How about you come with us when we do leave,” Oriel suggests. “We have much to discuss.”
“Fine. I’ll humour you this once.” Lukas leads us out of the building, and we’re fortunate enough to avoid all of his co-workers. He brings us out of the side door that only opens from the inside of the building. “It’s closer to the parking lot. Most of us use this door because it’s more convenient. The bright red car is mine. Get in.” We get into his car. Lukas drives us to the parking lot of a mall. “Even though the car has no top, the cars around us are empty.” Lukas glances from the left to the right, his eyes betraying his amusement at the identical purple cars on either side of his. He becomes serious again. “What do you intend to discuss?”
“Do you know what you’re doing? You’re getting involved in that wicked lady’s take over the worlds plan,” Oriel snaps at him from the back seat. “And you’re using stolen artifacts to do it.”
“I am not,” my old friend corrects her. “Ishahilde is. I have a bad feeling about her actions.”
“What is she planning to revive?” I raise an eyebrow when he refuses to answer. “Tell me.”
“I… I don’t know what he is, but I fear him. She will not tell me his name.”
“I don’t want to get involved in this,” I admit. “But the statues were stolen from Ser’s team, so this is a personal issue.”
“Well I’ll get involved,” Oriel states. “I’m eager to make Ishahilde regret what she’s doing.”
I suppress a sigh. Though Oriel hasn’t shown too many signs of being a bad person, she uses the negative consequences to those that she despises as motivation, and mixing that with being part of the Bad Line could end up as trouble eventually. Still, Ser has made it very clear that we will not raise her as if she was part of the Good Line, as Ser’s father mistakenly raised her.
“I promise I’m on your side.” Lukas’ words take me from my thoughts. “I’m working for Ashen, not for Ishahilde, and I’m sure her actions will put my world in danger.”
“How noble,” I groan. “Do you really think Ashen is doing anything good?”
“Of course. Is there anything wrong with uniting the worlds?”
Oriel spreads her hand across the view of the massive mall near us. “Yeah, if they’ll all look like this in the end.”
Lukas is about to argue, but he decides against it. “All right. I’ll keep you both updated on what Ishahilde is doing. I should probably get you back home now.” Lukas drives us from the mall to a portal back to Rubia. We exit the bright car, and as we do, I hear Oriel say something in a hushed tone to the man.
“Save Ishahilde for me. I’ll take care of her.”
Ser has gathered a small community in our living room. “What the hell?” Oriel whispers to me. “Has she gotten involved in some kind of weird group?”
“I don’t know. Who are these people?” We exit the porch and step into the living room.
Ser turns in surprise. “I didn’t expect you back so early.” She stands up from her perch on a wooden stool. “Meet the team. They’re my group for, as some would put it, digging crap out of dirt.”
Oriel shifts guiltily at Ser’s description, since it had originally been her own.
“They’re pretty skilled in their knowledge of artifacts, as well as different energies and abilities,” Ser continues, as six men and women in matching beige uniforms wave and say hello. “They’re also quite good at getting people from place to place.” She motions to a sixty year old woman, who wolds an unconscious girl in her arms. “Thank you for bringing her, Diane.”
“It’s the least I can do to help,” Diane replies. She places the girl down on the empty couch.
Oriel’s fist clenches. “You could have just asked her to come. She would have done it.”
“Do you know this girl?” I readjust the girl’s position on the couch, putting her neck at a more natural angle.
“Yeah, I do. This is my friend, Eleida Iltaski. Haven’t I told you about her before?”
“What? This is Iltaski?” I step back, and my elbow hits a dark green lamp behind me. It crashes to the floor. Iltaski’s eyes open at the sound. I notice that they are a striking emerald green, matching the small sheer cape that is draped over her shoulders and back. She sits up and pulls nervously at the ends of her platinum blonde hair. I continue to observe her as she adjusts to her surroundings and conclude that if I was twenty-eight or so years younger, I’d definitely find myself rather attracted to her. But she’s only around twenty and I’m not, she’s my daughter’s friend, and of course, I have a wife. Still, seeing Iltaski reminds me of all of the years of dating different people that I missed by being pretty much fated to end up with Ser. Though I shouldn’t miss that stuff anyway. I sure avoided a lot of disappointment by being with Ser the whole time.
